it is a sign of how the nra works in washington. they have done the very effective job of steering that agency by threatening its budget, trying to keep them from having a permanent director. it has been six years. neither president bush nor president obama has been able to get a permanent director. host: we have been talking to matt bennett of third way. thanks for being with us. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] >> all this month, we've been talking with retiring members of congress. join us later tonight for a sit- down we had recently with nebraska senator ben nelson. he served two terms and was part of the so-called gang of 14. that is 8:00 eastern tonight here on c-span. here is a brief look. >> what is your thought about the art of compromise and how much it is valued in this city? >> it is value to talk about it. everybody back home want people to come back to washington and work together, and then they send people back here who have committed not